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I posted on 24th Jan (#35 on this thread) and contacted the CAA who 'passed on' my complaint to Ryanair. The CAA did not give any opinion of whether I had a claim or not. However, it did illicit a response from Ryanair today (which to be honest is progress as my last two letters had been ignored!).

The key paragraphs as follows:

On behalf of Ryanair, we sincerely apologise for the diversion of your flight the FR9142 from Stansted to Faro on the 23/6/2011. Unfortunately, this flight was diverted to Malaga airport due to operational difficulties as a result of an earlier technical safety/technical problem with the aircraft due to operate your flight, outside of our control.

We can assure you that Ryanair took all reasonable measures to prevent this diversion. Please note that when flights are delayed for reasons outside of the control of an airline, monetary compensation is not applicable under EU Reg 261/2004.

Do I go to Court now or should I be asking for more detail in respect of the "technical safety/technical problem" before doing so?

Seems a straight forward case to me. Ryanair have apparently paid out on this flight already to SuperReds08 although they could still reject your application they would look silly in court. If you live i Scotland you are to late to claim but if you live in England or Wales you are okay. Download and read Vaubnas guide and go from there all is explained. You have until 23rd June to start court action if they refuse your claim. Follow the guide it's your bible.

Hi,
Both my wife and I had (separate) Ryanair flights last year that were cancelled / delayed and in both cases they said they would pay compensation but haven't.
In my case I keep getting message saying they are missing information but don't say what. I sent them a letter via the claim tracker asking what was missing and I got the same message back saying '

“

Thanks, we have received your claim, however we need some additional information and sent a request to you in relation to this. Please review our request and upon receipt we will process your claim without delay

”

' I don't know what to do next as I can't find any phone number sand besides I don't want to waste my time and money on hold. This is the original letter they sent to me (via email attachment):

“

We refer to your online enquiry dated 7th December 2016.

We sincerely regret the cancellation of your flight FR2373 from Gdansk to London Stansted on the 01/12/2016 which was due to adverse weather conditions, snow at Gdansk.

On the day of your flight delay you received an email to the email address in your booking advising you how to avail of free call credit. This credit was issued in accordance with our obligations under Article 9(2) EU261/2004 in order to assist you in making any necessary calls due to the unfortunate delay of your flight.

In addition, our handling agents at Gdansk Airport have confirmed that assistance was provided along with the notice.

Moreover, we note you were re-accommodated on an alternative flight FR2375 from Gdansk to London Stansted on the 02/12/2016. However, the flight was delayed to operational reasons.

Furthermore, please note that we are prepared to process a bank transfer in the amount of !!!8364;250.00, in accordance with our obligations under EU261/2004 Regulation.

However, if you incurred any additional reasonable receipted expenses during the delay, please submit copies of your receipted expenses by clicking on the following link and uploading your documents for our review.

On receipt of same, we will endeavour to process your claim without delay.

”

In my wife's case the twice have said they will send a cheque and haven't, it's now been 7 months since the flight delay.

I'm sure they hope that people just give up but I'm not going to. Does anyone have any pointers about how to get them to respond to requests instead of templated answers.

I'd love not to use them but Stansted is my local airport, we have started flying BA from Heathrow for one flight we regularly do. It takes twice as long to travel to the airport but the experience (both BA and the airport) is so much nicer and it actually costs less!

I am sure I have a case here but Ryanair is playing silly !!!!!!s and is outright refusing.

It was Ryanair flight FR1315 from Belfast International to Malaga that was scheduled to arrive at 8.45 but instead arrived at 11.39, so 2 hours and 54 minutes late; however I was aware of a recent Germanwings case in which passengers received compensation because the time of arrival was taken from when at least one door of the plane was opened and not when it landed. I know that the first door was only opened at 11.46 so just over the 3-hour delay threshold.

Unfortunately, both bottom line and EU claims won't take the claim saying it's outside their jurisdiction but before I take the plunge and take Ryanair to court do I have much chance of winning? How do I prove when the door opened?

Time of arrival is taken when first door opens - you are correct - there is also an EasyJet small claims (not precedent) which is along the same lines as the case you quote.

IMO however you are going to have a battle and indeed your case will rely on, from what you are saying, a one minute difference ie 181 as opposed to 180 minutes. I would not be confident in my own time keeping if I was faced with this level of difference and indeed the most likely accurate record is in Ryanair's ACARS system - not public knowledge and would probably be produced in court by Ryanair if they know they are in the right.

Personally I would walk away given the NWNF's will not take on but others may differ in opinion.

Thank you, for your replies! I am certain that the door opened at 23:46 as I knew to check what time the doors opened exactly, but given that it's my word against theirs and that the two most knowledgeable people on this topic say to let it go I'll move on.

Attempted to claim direct from RYR and they claimed no compensation due because of adverse weather. Instructed Bott & Co to step in and after one letter they have paid out 400 euros per passenger. There is obviously some games being played because they have sent the total amount directly to us rather than to Bott&Co as per their instructions.

I am sure I have a case here but Ryanair is playing silly !!!!!!s and is outright refusing.

It was Ryanair flight FR1315 from Belfast International to Malaga that was scheduled to arrive at 8.45 but instead arrived at 11.39, so 2 hours and 54 minutes late; however I was aware of a recent Germanwings case in which passengers received compensation because the time of arrival was taken from when at least one door of the plane was opened and not when it landed. I know that the first door was only opened at 11.46 so just over the 3-hour delay threshold.

Unfortunately, both bottom line and EU claims won't take the claim saying it's outside their jurisdiction but before I take the plunge and take Ryanair to court do I have much chance of winning? How do I prove when the door opened?

Just as a follow up:
Bottomline wrote back to me today to tell me that they're unable to take the case as "Door time was 23:40." I then asked if this was official and they confirmed it was.

So the only conclusion I can come to given this new information is that Ryanair is unashamedly and blatantly lying about the door open time. I am sure that if had actually managed to land and plane and opened the doors within a minute it'd be some sort of record but that's simply not what happened.

The plane sent several minutes taxiing up the runway (big airport!) and then a couple minutes more to do checks before finally opening the doors after the three-hour delay threshold.

I have asked Bottomline again if they'd like to take the case on but not very optimistic it just amazes me how blatant and brazen Ryanair are.

Flightstats shows a more detailed breakdown of the times
It shows an actual "runway arrival" of 11:35pm then an actual "gate arrival" of 11:39pm (so 4 minutes from landing to parking at the gate) whereas your link only shows the one time
How you can prove that these details have been falsified I don't know.

I'm afraid most airlines will continue to be disingenuous, procrastinating spouting misleading or dishonest information when it comes to claims.
They are a business. They really, in the majority of cases, don't give a damn.

Flightstats shows a more detailed breakdown of the times
It shows an actual "runway arrival" of 11:35pm then an actual "gate arrival" of 11:39pm (so 4 minutes from landing to parking at the gate) whereas your link only shows the one time
How you can prove that these details have been falsified I don't know.

It will take possible court action to potentially get the actual data from airport.
A note for future - if close to the 3 hour limit, have your camera ready in movie mode with date and time stamp to video door opening time.

I note alot of airlines now seem to have added 30 mins onto the scheduled arrival time. I was 35 mins early on my last Jet2 flight....

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